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KG to Skip Champs/Montreal-Champ. July2-4 (seeing new neurologist)

Posted By Colonel | 06/10/2010

Ken explains why he is not going to play the Montreal-Champ. July 2-4….

KG’s Blog Post #66 – 6/27/10 4:49pm (Dick’s Rnd3 no-go)

Dicks Titanic,

My 2nd round, 74, was so very close to breaking par. A few bad breaks, lies, and a not so good putter, cost me the goal of going under par. I was eagerly awaiting the 3rd. round as I really thought I could go under par.

However, my friend, mister nerves struck pretty hard throughout the night. This was the 2nd. night in a row, that I had to fight my “friend”. Upon waking this morning, I realized that the body had had too much. I was convinced by friends not to play today.

I do believe it was the right decision. Sadly I will not be going to Montreal; instead it is my hope that I will be seeing a neurologist this week. Reality has struck, and I know that until we solve this dilemma, I will never know whether I can become a professional golfer again. The inability to do things on a daily basis that you have to do to improve your game, just aren’t being done at the moment. So, with that said it is time for me to jump ship from competitive golf until my nerve problems are resolved.

My pride and competitive spirit, just do not want to handle the playing for show, disabled rights and the spirit of golf. I don’t want to be held responsible for anything I say in this moment as I am writing this with sadness and tears, so I may not be of sound mind.

I will certainly keep you posted as of what happens when I see the new neurologist. Please remember there WERE people that survived the Titanic and the RV. I will fight on.

Ken Green’s life changed forever a year ago this week. On June 8, 2009, the 5-time winner on the PGA Tour lost his longtime girlfriend Jeanne Hodgin, his brother Bill and his German shepherd dog Nip when his RV blew a front tire and left the road, crashing into a large tree while travelling on Interstate 20 near Meridian, Miss. Green survived the accident, but his lower right leg had to be amputated because of the injuries he sustained. Green endured more personal tragedy this year, when in January his estranged 21-year-old son, Hunter, died in his Southern Methodist Univ. dorm as a result of an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs.

After the RV accident, Green — who now has a prosthetic right leg — vowed to return to competitive golf. He has already accomplished that this year on the 50-and-over PGA Champions Tour and will be in the field for the inaugural Montreal Championship, slated for July 2-4 at Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que [ http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/s013 ].

“The 6 rounds I’ve played so far, I feel it’s a better accomplishment than the tournaments I’ve won,” Green said of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf in late April and last month’s Regions Charity Classic. “I’m more gratified and feel more of a sense of accomplishment than I did winning,” Green, who turns 52 next month, added during a teleconference call this week. “It’s the ultimate as far as I’m concerned. That’s how good I feel when I get on that tee now.”

Green counts the 1988 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey as the most satisfying of his PGA Tour victories since it was “a country’s national open.” He earned nearly $3.7 million US and had 44 top-10 finishes during a career that spanned nearly 20 years before personal problems — including clinical depression — finally took their toll. Financially ruined, he even contemplated suicide. During his time on the PGA Tour, Green was known for being belligerent, somewhat of a rebel, and prone to actions that sometimes demonstrated a lack of respect for the game or his peers. He reportedly once hid some friends in the trunk of his car to get them into the Masters. Attempting to strike out on a new career on the Champions Tour, Green joined the 50-and-over circuit in his first year of eligibility and played 18 tournaments, earning nearly $150,000 before the RV accident.

“The game is different now in that I don’t have the strength, and physically I can’t repeat the golf swing,” Green said. “Every swing is a little different. It’s hard to repeat the swing in any case, and now it’s much harder. The slightest of sidehill lies are an absolute disaster,” he added. “To try to execute on the professional level … I shanked a 6-iron for the first time in my in life at Alabama (the Regions tournament, where he shot 74, 76, 75 to tie for 73rd) and thought: ‘Oh my God.’ I almost took Gary Hallberg’s head off. So it is physically different. Mentally, it’s totally different, too. But I loved golf before the accident and I still do. When I got the opportunity to compete, I realized how much I loved doing it. I have so much more respect for the game and for the ability. I still have the ability to play decent, but I don’t think I’ll ever be the player I once was. “Honestly, I can still beat most people, and that makes you feel pretty good. That you’re enjoying it even more than you used to and you respect it even more. That’s kinda weird coming from me, because people know that I’ve had kind of a wild reputation. So it’s been a fun process in that there is some good out of the agony I’ve had to endure. “When you lose as much I did, you learn to … not necessarily to appreciate life, because I do … but I really appreciate playing golf and being able to go out there and try to compete. It’s in your blood.

“The great thing about golf versus any other sport is that you can do it longer,” he added. “The idea that I can go out there … I don’t get upset … I don’t get even remotely angry. … Even when I hit that shank shot, you sit there, laugh and shake it off. Don’t get me wrong, I get aggravated because I’m trying, but I don’t get angry. That’s the difference.”

How much opportunity Green gets to “beat most people” remains to be seen, because after the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on June 25-27 in Endicott, NY, and the Montreal event, the only way he can continue to play in Champions Tour events is on sponsor exemptions. “For whatever reason, (the tour) elected to not grant me a major medical exemption,” Green said. “I don’t agree with it, but that’s what they’ve decided. “All I want to do is get better, keep trying to improve. That’s been my goal every tournament I’ve played. That’s not always an easy task in the game of golf. When I get to Montreal, I want to be even better than I was at the Dick’s Sporting Goods event.”